Jericho
by HoldoutTrout
Summary: It takes Sam and Jack 10 years to get to this point, and their future is threatened when an Ancient device claims Jack. AU of Ark of Truth


It took them ten years, hundreds of missions, and the Ori occupation of Earth to get to this point.

"If you just--" Sam whispered, and Jack shifted his weight. Now he was pinching her left side instead of her right. "Ow."

"Sorry."

Sam sighed. "Let's just--" she wiggled, and Jack tried to shift again. "Stop!"

Jack froze.

"This was a bad idea," Sam said. She should have known better. Sleeping with Jack was the one thing she should never have done. After her father died, it just wasn't the right time, and then Jack had been in D.C. It had _never_ seemed like the right time for them, and the few times she'd seen him since, it had been...comfortable to just stay...whatever they had been.

And then the Priors showed up.

They barely had time to beam up the SGC personnel to the _Odyssey_, and they'd limped their way into hyperspace. Since then, they'd received news from several more planets that their people were either fleeing or converting, and Sam was guiltily trying to keep herself from being grateful _her_ people were all there, including Jack.

_At least they're still alive. At least he's here._

Jack had noticed. He'd joked with her. She'd joked back, and somehow they'd ended up here, crammed into a bunk together, trying to find a position that didn't leave one or the other of them in pain.

"It's not," Jack said. He backed up as much as the space allowed. "It's not a bad idea. Bad timing, maybe," Sam huffed out a laugh, "but not a bad idea." He kissed her breastbone. Sam propped herself up on her elbows so she could kiss him back.

It was a good kiss. It almost made up for the bad attempted sex.

"Do you think the floor is too cold?" she asked.

"Yes," Jack said. "I also think my knees would kill me."

Sam was already thinking of solutions for that. "Not if I'm on top."

"Cold floor," Jack reminded her, after a pregnant, heated pause.

"Blanket," Sam countered, shifting her hips.

"Sold."

They moved. Sam only hit her head once getting out of the bunk, and the mood remained largely intact.

"Better," Sam said, arching.

"Oh, yeah," Jack said.

******

Nothing good had happened today. They'd received word that three more planets had fallen to the Ori. Practically no one was refusing to convert, given the fact that the Tau'ri themselves had turned tail and run. Engineering was still a mess from the brief fight they'd had with the Ori ships before they escape into hyperspace, and they'd found yet more damage. Daniel hadn't figured out where they needed to look next.

Sam showed up at Jack's door way, way too late, but Jack was still awake.

The first words out of Jack's mouth were "Daniel will find it."

"Yes," Sam said, the 'sir' dying in her throat.

"Wanna come in?" Jack asked.

"Yes," Sam said.

Things went a lot more smoothly this time around.

"I told you this was a good idea," Jack said. He kept his fingers on Sam's ribs, light pressure that transmitted every laugh.

"That's what you said the first time," Sam said.

"Oh, the sex. Yeah. That was a pretty good idea." Jack's fingers started migrating south. "I meant the bed."

The 'bed' was two mattresses from the bunks shoved together on the floor--neither of them quite flat, since there really wasn't very much room.

"Hmm," Sam said. She captured Jack's hand in hers, kept them both at her hip. She was just about to fall asleep. "Can I stay?" Sam asked.

Jack rubbed her hip. "Can you?"

The thought of going back to a room crammed with three other people--two of whom snored--didn't appeal. Not that Jack didn't snore. He did. Loudly.

"Somehow, I think if people need to find me, they'll know where to look," Sam said. She'd passed at least three people on her way here. One had seen her knocking before turning the corner. Yesterday, Vala had given her a Look and had started to ask her something before Daniel shut her up.

"Ah," Jack said. He pulled her closer. Sam adjusted her head on the pillow and closed her eyes. Jack drew her hair aside and kissed the back of her neck, and Sam let herself drift asleep.

Daniel did, in fact, find out where they needed to go, a little moon orbiting a gas giant with a spectacular sky, red-stone ruins of a city, and an tower so Ancient it was like a sign saying 'look here.' Sam would have gone with Jack and the others, but she spotted a little power source somewhere else in the city. She took Teal'c with her to check it out.

She hadn't been there, Sam thought later. If she'd been with them, she might have been able to stop it, or fix it. She cursed the Ancients in her head, all the while clutching the book they'd left behind for someone to find, the book Daniel thought might hold yet another clue on their goddamned scavenger hunt.

She'd found a little nook protected by a shield. There wasn't anything in there, or so it seemed, and she had brought down the shield in no time flat, the stale air of the room beyond washing over her as she held her breath. Teal'c kept an eye outside because the ordinary dangers of alien planets didn't stop being deadly just because the Ori were after them, and Sam swept the room. She found a trunk, perfectly ordinary, and not even locked, and opened it to find the book.

Before she could even thumb her comm it crackled to life. The Ori had caught up to them. Sam and Teal'c were beamed up directly to the bridge, and it was only then Sam heard the chaotic voices of the rest of her team.

"General O'Neill, he--we can't get him _out_, sir," Cam said.

"I can't get a lock on him, sir," Marks said.

"It's some kind of stasis--oh, shit."

Gunfire, and then the peculiar energy weapons of the Ori. Sam grabbed the chair edge in front of her.

"Sir! The Ori are powering up their weapons!"

"Get them out of there," Landry ordered. "And then go into hyperspace."

Sam wanted to protest but couldn't. She could read the screens as well as anyone, knew there wasn't any time.

She watched five transponders on the screen blink out as the rest of SG-1 was beamed up, the last one remaining steady as the ship turned. They made it to hyperspace with only one hit from the Ori beam weapon, a glancing blow that left people shaken but unhurt.

The screen that had showed the location of SG-1 faded to black.

Sam heard a low buzz of sound, knew people were talking, but couldn't understand them. Someone took the book from her, and then Cam caught her arms and almost dragged her off the bridge.

If she'd only been down there...

The numbness lasted until she tripped over a raised doorway and slammed into the bulkhead. Sam Carter, who had been in situations that ranged from unbelievable to death-defying, felt a surge of panic that threatened to bring her to her knees. And, as usual when confronted by the impossible, she forced the adrenaline running through her body to work for her, shoved the fear and her loss aside, and stood up.

Cam waited in front of her, and when Sam met his eyes, he said, "We'll get him back, Sam."

Sam took a breath and nodded. They would. They didn't leave people behind, not if they could help it. She started down the corridor toward engineering. She had work to do.

******

They tried to go back, but the planet was deserted. There was no signal from Jack's transponder, no Ori ships, and when they made it to the surface and tower, they found only footprints and a hole where the stasis chamber had been.

"Damn it!" Cam said.

Sam stared at the blank space before her, her imagination filling in the chamber's cool metal and soft lights, Jack behind the surface, his eyes open and vacant. She shuddered.

"We should check out the rest of the tower," Daniel said. He was keeping an eye on Sam and trying to be surreptitious about it. "As long as we're here."

There was nothing else, and they beamed back up to the _Odyssey_ exhausted and defeated. Everyone on the ship was tired and short-tempered, and Sam hid herself more and more often behind her work in the control room, tired of everyone walking around her or giving her sympathetic glances.

Daniel was working on translating the book, but not finding anything. Landry was attempting to contact all their allies. They visited Cimmeria, Simarka, and everywhere else they thought the Ori had not yet gone. Some of them were fine, but more housed at least a Prior. Even though they had the Asgard core off-line, it sometimes seemed as if the Ori could predict their moves. When they dropped into orbit around Argos, they were joined almost immediately by an Ori ship, and barely escaped with the _Odyssey_ intact.

They retreated to PN6-756, which SG-4 had explored several years back. It was a wet, cold planet--at least around the Stargate--that no one liked, but which had an extensive, mostly-intact compound for them to inhabit while the _Odyssey_ was repaired.

Sam was working all the time, either getting power systems and equipment set up on the ground, or supervising repairs on board the _Odyssey_. She felt wire-thin, fell asleep more and more often. People got used to shaking her awake. Finally, a nurse--one of the two medical personnel they had--coaxed Sam into the infirmary, where she slept for a solid day and awoke to the news that would change everything.

"You're pregnant."

******

"George," Cam said, a sly look on his face that made Sam narrow her eyes.

"Of the jungle?" she said.

"I didn't say that!" Cam protested. "Although, now that you mention it...'George! Watch out for that--kree!" He laughed.

Sam threw a bit of wire at him over her rounded stomach, hitting his bare arm. "Ha ha."

She was on bed rest--again--and Cam had what he'd started to refer to as "baby-mamma duty," or what Sam called, "Keep the person who can blow up suns entertained" duty. Now that it wasn't near freezing, Vala had pointed out that one of the rooms with three walls and a roof might provide enough shelter while allowing Sam to have fresh air, too. Sam was resting on her side facing out through a curtain of rain, but it was much more pleasant than staring at the stone walls of the compound all day and night.

"How's Daniel?" Sam asked.

"He said the mountain exploded." Cam's tone was grim.

Sam frowned. Daniel had been having visions lately, of what he presumed was the Ark, and a mountain. Daniel thought the mountain might be on Dakara, but if that were the case, they might never know. The Ori forces had completely swarmed the planet, and it would be impossible to take a ship or the Stargate without someone noticing them.

"If we knew for sure," Cam said, as if she'd spoken out loud, "I'd go there anyway."

Sam sighed. Beneath her hand, she felt the flutter of a kick. She was always surprised at the emotion such a simple sensation evoked. She changed the subject. "What if it's a girl?"

Cam grinned. He said, "I know someone who would _love_ it if you named the baby after her."

Sam groaned. Vala had been pestering her for days with reasons why 'Vala' would be the perfect name for a girl. "It's not going to happen," Sam said.

"I'm just sayin'," Cam said. "Did you know that 'Vala' means 'strong and beautiful woman?'"

Sam threw another piece of wire. Cam opened his mouth to protest, and Sam said, "I have a whole stack over here." She adjusted the pillow under her head as Cam leaned back in his chair.

The rain changed tempo, grew a little lighter. After a few minutes, Cam said, "Frankie."

"Oh my god," Sam said.

******

"Sam, you have to push!" Daniel said.

Sam wanted to scream at him and ask him exactly what the hell he thought she was doing, but then another contraction came and she settled for clamping down on his hand and pushing as much as she could.

Cam and Teal'c were bracing her from behind. Amazingly, there were no birthing tables in the compound, and the _Odyssey_ was running a rescue mission for some of the planets they thought they could reach without too much trouble. One of the nurses had gone with the ship, and the other, a young woman named Elena who seriously looked about Cassie's age, had co-opted Daniel for help, since he'd done this before.

Vala had gone with the _Odyssey_. With the drugs.

"That's it," Daniel said. "I can see the head, Sam."

"Almost there," Cam said, his voice low and calm.

"Ye--augh!" Sam grunted. She pushed, and then she felt something give.

"That's it," Elena said, triumphant. A wail broke into the room so that Elena almost had to shout the next part. "It's a boy!"

Sam was crying, didn't know if she had been already, but fairly sure her motivation was very different now.

Elena handed the baby to Daniel, who brought him up by Sam's head to she could see him. He was wrinkled and ugly and bawling and _hers_.

"He's perfect," Daniel said, the awe in his voice apparent.

"There's just the placenta," Elena said. "Then we'll get you cleaned up."

Sam nodded, but her attention was on Daniel and her baby boy. Daniel handed him over carefully and she held him, feeling worn out and disbelieving that this person had come out of her.

"He's beautiful," she said, and ignored the looks the guys tossed over her head. He squirmed and Sam shifted to hold him a little more securely.

"Hello," she said. "Hello, Joshua."

******

Joshua, it turned out, was a perfectly healthy, perfectly normal, baby. No rapid growth, no strange alien illnesses, and the only complaint Sam had about him was that he liked to fall asleep while eating.

He was only a few days old when Daniel found the location of the Ark. They called a meeting, and Sam brought Joshua, perhaps a bigger talisman now that he was actually born, but certainly louder and more obtrusive, if only because Vala and Cam engaged in a silent battle over who would hold him.

Teal'c won.

Sam was expecting Daniel to lead up to the location, talk about the history of the planet, or what he knew about the Ark, so she was surprised when he said, "It's in the Ori galaxy."

There was complete silence.

"That's where Merlin hid it?" Cam asked. "In the place we're least wanted?"

"Yeah. Apparently," Daniel said.

"Well, that's f--" Cam glanced at General Landry, and then said, "just great. You're sure?"

Daniel rubbed his head. He looked even more exhausted than Sam felt, which was saying something considering late-night feedings that took twice as long as they should. He said, "Yes. Mostly. If it's even still there."

"But that's where it should be?" Vala asked.

Daniel nodded. "It's called Ortus Mallum. It's where the Ark was created, and the last place of resistance in the Ori galaxy."

Everyone looked at General Landry. He said, "Do we know anything else about this place? Is it inhabited? Is it inhabitable?"

Daniel pushed a finger against the nose of his glasses. "Even if the book said, it's thousands of years out of date."

Cam wave a hand, "So we have no idea what kind of situation we're going into, we don't know where the Ark is, specifically, and...do we even know how the damn thing works if we find it?"

"Nope," Daniel said.

Cam said, "Oh, yeah. Walk in the park."

Sam saw just the barest hint of a smile on Teal'c's face, and thought she managed to catch a gleam of amusement on Landry's.

There was a brief pause, and then Vala asked, "So when do we leave?"

******

There was a lot of discussion not about when to leave, but who was going. Landry was reluctant to take more people than absolutely necessary. The _Odyssey_ only needed a skeleton crew, but almost everyone qualified wanted to be on her for this mission. He was also more than a little reluctant to take Sam, but caved when it was pointed out that only Sam had the breadth of technical knowledge to solve problems that came up.

Sam reasoned that she could either be on a ship waiting for the Ori to pop out of nowhere or on a planet waiting for the Ori to show up. They would, eventually, if the people on the _Odyssey_ couldn't manage to stop them. And the Ark was their only chance of doing that.

"The only problem with a Supergate allowing you to bring through troops from your home galaxy," Cam said as the _Odyssey_ traveled away from the event horizon, "is that other people--like us--can us it to come to you."

Daniel snorted. "Yes, because one ship is definitely going to cause fear and trembling among the Ori troops."

They made it to Ortus Mallum within a few hours. On the viewscreen, it looked lush and blue-green, and it was completely uninhabited.

"We can't possibly have this good of luck," Vala said.

Cam glared at her. "Don't say that. Haven't you seen enough movies by now to know better?"

"This is not a movie, Colonel Mitchell," Teal'c said.

"Yes, but--"

"We're in range, sir," Marks said. "I'm getting a power source in the southern hemisphere," he said.

"That's our cue," Daniel said, and Teal'c, Cam, and Vala gathered around him. Sam shifted Joshua, who had refused to be put down for a nap, and watched the light from the beaming technology gather around them and fade away, taking her team with it.

They listened to the team's chatter as they searched around the area. Cam reported that it was temperate, hilly, and quiet.

"Very quiet," Vala added, in an ominous tone that made Cam act with predictable irritation.

After an hour, they still hadn't found anything, and the ship's scans had come up empty on more detail. Sam itched to be down there, but contented herself with double-checking the scans.

Nothing.

******

"There aren't any other mountains we're forgetting, Jackson?" Cam's voice came through the comms, weary and more than a little frustrated.

"We're in the right place. I know we are," Daniel insisted.

Sam listened to them as she kept and eye on the screens. If this was the planet, the chances the Ori would show up were pretty good.

"We have searched this ground before, Daniel Jackson," Teal'c said.

"I know!"

A strained silence.

"Look," Vala sounded nearly as tired as Cam. "This is hopeless--"

Silence. Sam imagined Vala was getting glares from Daniel and Teal'c, if not Cam, so she was surprised when Vala spoke up again. "Or not."

"What's going on, SG-1?" Landry asked.

"Daniel's having another vision, sir," Cam said.

Something made a thunking noise--definitely hollow. "I think we found a way in," Daniel said.

A shout, and then, "Sir, it looks like an entrance to some sort of underground tunnel. We're going to check it out."

"Understood, SG-1," Landry replied. He gave Sam a tight smile and she returned it, settling back into her chair to wait. They listened to the chatter between SG-1 as the group moved into the ground, occasionally detailing their progress.

"Sir, there's--" Cam's voice cut out into static. "--light--we--"

There was only a low hiss, then...

"Sir! We have two--three! Ori ships," Marks said.

"How the hell did they find us?" Landry demanded. "Beam SG-1 up, now."

"I can't, sir."

Sam's mouth went dry. "No," she said. "We can't--"

"Sir! The lead ship is firing!"

The beam weapon hit their shields, and Sam heard the whine of the inertial dampeners as they tried to compensate. She held on and was tossed against the back of her chair. Joshua, who had been sleeping and blissfully unaware, woke up and started crying.

"Evasive maneuvers!" Landry ordered. The ship started a sharp turn and was hit again--a glancing blow this time, but Sam felt it almost as hard as the last one.

"Shields at forty-seven percent!" Marks said. "Sir! They just ringed down to the planet--oh my god. Shields are down!"

"What?" Landry said, "That's--"

A bright light engulfed Sam and the rest of Landry's sentence was lost, even as Joshua's wails grew louder. She blinked and found herself in the command center of an Ori ship, a Prior sitting in the control chair, and a woman wreathed in flames behind him.

It was Adria. There was a brief moment where Sam thought about running, and then Ori soldiers streamed through the door and surrounded her. Another flash of light and Daniel, Cam, Vala, and Teal'c appeared, along with an ornate box. It had red buttons arranged around a large red crystal on top.

"Get us out of here," Adria said, and the Prior inclined his head.

The viewscreen blurred into the familiar patterns of hyperspace.

******

Sam had just managed to quiet Joshua when her cell door opened and Adria stepped in. Adria was more than a little frightening at the best of times, and with flames licking along her frame, she was downright terrifying. Sam barely managed to avoid recoiling from her; Joshua had no qualms about making his aversion known.

"You and me both, kiddo," Sam mumbled in response to his renewed cries.

"Colonel Carter," Adria said, her pleasant tone at odds with her appearance. "I see congratulations are in order."

Sam gathered Joshua closer to her.

Adria laughed. "Don't worry; I won't harm either of you."

Sam raised an eyebrow. "Oh?"

Adria shrugged. "I already know about the Ark--not as much as Daniel, perhaps, but enough--and I know that you can't stop my followers." She ran a hand along the wall, turning away from Sam, though Sam wasn't foolish enough to think she wasn't paying attention.

"So why are you here?" Sam asked. "Just gloating?"

Adria turned back to her, her face serious. "I came to ask you to renounce evil and take up the truth of Origin."

Sam laughed. "Why would you think I'd ever do that?"

Adria paused. "I'll show you. Come with me."

The door opened, and Adria stepped through. She signaled to two guards who came in and flanked Sam. She wondered what they expected her to try with a baby in her arms, but rose and followed Adria. It was a short walk, another door--another two guards outside--and Adria nodded to them. One of them palmed open the door, revealing a cell identical to Sam's, only there was no chair in here. A figure huddled in the corner, not moving as Adria loomed over him. She grabbed his arm and the man arched away from her touch as if it burned. Adria held on and dragged him to his feet.

Sam was frozen in place as Adria turned him, propped him against the wall.

"I thought you two knew each other," Adria said. "Unfortunately, I _did_ have to hurt him. I needed to know what Daniel was after, and he was too useful to pass up."

"Jack?" Sam whispered.

Jack's head bobbed and he looked at Sam. His eyelids were half-closed and he looked like someone had half-drowned him. There was a shiny patch of skin on his temple where he must have been burned.

"I won't tell them anything else," he croaked.

"He doesn't really believe you're here," Adria said. "I'm not sure if it's the fact he's drugged or from the torture."

She sounded like she was discussing the weather. Sam filled with white-hot rage at Adria's casual tone, and she actually took a step forward.

"Ah!" Adria said. Sam's feet froze to the floor. "That wouldn't do you any good anyway." She let Jack slump back to the ground. "He's not beyond repair," she said. "Not yet. That's what I wanted to talk to you about." She left Jack at her feet and continued. "Renounce evil, and join me, and he'll live."

Sam felt herself able to move again. She took a breath. "No."

"You would condemn him to death?" Adria said.

Sam looked at Jack. His head thunked against the wall and he looked up at her. For one brief moment, she thought he saw her--really saw her--and then he closed his eyes.

"I won't join you," Sam said again.

Adria's voice turned cold, even as flames licked along her arms. "Fine." She looked behind Sam. "Take her back to her cell. I'll send someone for the child."

"What?" Sam gasped. An Ori soldier appeared on either side of her, and herded her toward the door.

"I can't have an innocent soul grow up without knowing the truth of Origin," Adria said.

The soldiers had her through the door, and down the hall. Sam did try running, now, but she was hampered by Joshua, and shoved into her own cell faster than she could get away. The door closed before she even turned around, and the one hand she brought up landed with a hollow thump.

******

She had it figured out by the next time the door opened, and she was prepared, against the wall and ready to kick the first person to come through.

Thankfully for Cam's knees, he sent an Ori soldier flying through first.

"Time to blow this joint!" he said, stepping over the soldier's legs.

Sam came out of her crouch. "I have to--"

Cam interrupted her. "Teal'c's got General O'Neill." He reached down and tore off the energy weapon around the man's wrist.

"How did you--"

"Long story. Jackson's with Vala. They're going to open the Ark, and I want to be--" he handed her the weapon and took the staff weapon for himself. "No offense," he said, giving Joshua a glance, "but think that'll be easier."

Sam fastened it. "This'll be fine."

"Okay. We're going to the control room. We gotta get this baby turned around."

It ended up being a quiet trip. They saw one group of soldiers patrolling, but from a long way down a corridor. There wasn't a single person in the control room when they got there. The machines hummed with energy, and Carter gave Joshua to Cam and started pulling off panels.

She swore as she took a look at the crystals below the panels.

"What's the matter?" Cam asked, coming closer while keeping an eye on the entrance.

Sam sat back on her heels. "Well, when we were on board the Ori ship above Dakara, I managed to drop the shields, but...this is beyond me." She stood up. "The ship is meant to be piloted from that chair. I can disable the ship, or affect internal communications, life support, go into lockdown, but if we want to turn around and still go somewhere--"

"It isn't going to work," Cam finished for her. "Okay." He said, "Plan B."

"We have a plan B?" Sam said.

Cam shrugged. "No."

The lights went out, and the ship dropped out of hyperspace, the stars settling into a clear field in the viewscreen. The quiet hum of the ship stilled, then spun up again, the lights flickering on again, although the ship remained stationary.

"Okay...what was that?" Cam asked.

"I believe that was Daniel Jackson," Teal'c said, appearing at the doorway, supporting Jack with one arm. Jack was standing, but his eyes were closed.

Sam rushed over and took his other side. His head swung around. "Oh, good," he said. "Are you real, too? T says he is."

Sam and Teal'c exchanged a look over Jack's head.

"Yes, sir," Sam said gently. "I'm real."

Jack's eyes closed and he sighed. "Carter doesn't call me that anymore."

"Oh, yes, I do," Sam grumbled. She and Teal'c moved Jack to the chair and set him down.

He startled as he dropped the last inch or so. "Hey...this looks familiar." He put his fingers on the controls and looked disappointed when nothing happened. Sam was vaguely relieved.

"Where are Daniel and Vala?" Sam asked.

"Here."

Daniel and Vala entered the control room, followed by a Prior. Sam raised her weapon automatically, but Daniel waved it off.

"It's okay. He's..."

"I have seen the Truth of the Ori," the Prior said. "I am no longer blind to their evil."

There were three identical looks of disbelief cast toward Daniel, who said, "And neither are any of the other Priors in this galaxy, apparently."

"The Ark?" Cam asked.

Daniel nodded.

"What about Adria?" Cam asked.

Vala cleared her throat. "She's gone."

Daniel reached out and touched Vala's shoulder. She shrugged his hand off and said, "So we can go home now?"

The Prior said, "I will fly you back to your ship."

"I can do it!" Jack said from the chair. Teal'c scooped him up and the Prior took his place.

Cam said, "Uh, Sam?"

"Drugged," she said.

"Aw, come on. I only crashed one mothership, and that wasn't my fault. Hey," he said, looking at Cam and Joshua, "whose kid is that?"

Everyone looked carefully away from Sam.

"We hope," she added, and they jumped into hyperspace.

*******

Jack was just fine after the drugs worked their way through his system, and Sam told him about Joshua when he was still too tired to move much. She had her speech all prepared, beginning with the stasis chamber and working her way up to finding out about being pregnant, which is when her speech went to hell.

"You--I--what?" Jack asked.

So Sam took a breath to explain it again, figuring she'd muddled it up somewhere.

"After you--left--I found out I was--"

She faltered, looked in Jack's eyes, saw the shock and knew he'd heard her the first time. She looked for just a minute, feeling shaky and more than a little warm, and she said, "His name is Joshua. Our son's name is Joshu--"

Jack pulled her down and kissed her.

******

Josh held on to the wall and slowly inched his way up until he was standing. He swayed a bit, looked around, and then fell back down to the floor, where he smiled and clapped.

Sam let out the breath she'd been holding, a little disappointed, and a little relieved. She was not looking forward to running around after a toddler all day--Joshua was already a pile of trouble with just the crawling.

"He sure isn't in any hurry, is he?" Jack said.

Sam laughed in agreement. Her entire morning had been spent either trying to work or watching Josh's aborted attempts at walking, and her neck was stiff from craning it around all the time.

There was a knock at their door, and Jack stood, scooping Josh into his arms and making him giggle. "Playtime!" He opened the door and let Cam in.

"You ready to go?" Cam asked, and Josh went with him without any fuss; he was used to everyone in the compound, though he liked Cam the best. "You start walking yet?" Cam said. Josh burrowed his head into Cam's neck. "I'll take that as a no."

"Have you heard anything from Daniel?" Sam asked. Daniel and Vala were back on Earth, helping governments work through revelations about aliens and dead supernatural beings and the mere existence of the Stargate.

Cam picked up Josh's bag. "Only that Daniel's trying hard not to kill the French Ambassador and Vala's sure she's going to go crazy if she has to sit through another budget meeting. They're supposed to check in tomorrow, too--something about a press conference."

"There are so many days I'm glad that's not my job anymore," Jack said.

Cam smiled. "Me too, sir."

Josh grabbed a piece of hair above Cam's ear, and Cam dislodged his fingers with a wince before shifting Josh's bag further onto his shoulder. "No offense, but we've got plans. Places to go, people to annoy..."

"Thanks, Cam," Sam said.

Cam shrugged. "No problem. We'll see you later!" He waved Josh's little hand and the two of them left, Jack closing the door behind them.

Sam stretched and rolled her neck.

Jack stuck his hands in his pocket. "So...what do you want to do with our free day?"

"Hmmm," Sam said. "What's the weather like?"

"About as nice as you'd expect--seventy-five degrees, with a slight chance of breaks in the rain," Jack said.

Sam sighed. "We really need a new planet," she said.

"I'll get you one for Christmas," Jack promised. "One with sun. And beaches. Lots of beaches. And no trees."

Sam laughed. "I like trees," she said. She stood up and wrapped her arms around Jack's neck.

"There will be no trees on my beach planet," Jack said, and kissed her, effectively ending the argument. It also settled the discussion about what to do that day, because kissing led them right back to their mattress.

A very long time later, Sam moved so her back was against Jack's chest. He kissed her shoulder, and she gave a low, satisfied hum.

"I've been thinking," Jack said.

"Thinking?" Sam teased.

Jack tightened his arms around her stomach, and Sam squirmed back against him.

"Well, I missed seeing you pregnant...and you said something, the other day, about maybe wanting another kid."

Sam stopped moving. She remembered the conversation--one of Ishta's women had asked her if she was planning on having any more children, and Sam had answered with a vague 'Maybe someday.' She hadn't given it much thought, honestly, had thought that she and Jack were fairly content.

"Sam?" Jack asked.

Sam said, "Do you want another one?"

She felt Jack's shoulder lift. "Maybe. Do you?"

Sam turned over. Jack's expression was carefully neutral, but she hadn't spent years around him for nothing. She said, slowly, "Well, Josh _should_ have a sister. To keep him from getting too arrogant."

Jack smiled. "That," he proclaimed, "was exactly what I was thinking."

Sam snorted. "Liar." And before Jack could protest his innocence, she kissed him again.

******


End file.
